Friday, 18 September 2015

What is it about Boston we wonder?

All around us, Lincolnshire’s other district councils seem
to be in good heart – delivering services to their taxpayers and not forever
moaning about how hard up and run down they are, whilst espousing the
formations of “partnerships” which are really nothing of the kind ... simply a
thinly disguised way of getting others to do the work for them, and often foot
the bill to boot.

***

This week saw the meeting of the Boston Town Area committee –
B-Tacky to its friends ... who number
few, if any.

High on the agenda – as regular readers will already know – was
a begging request for funds to bale out the cost of this year’s Christmas
lights switching-on ceremony and a so-called market.

Switch on some lights?

Put up a few stalls?

A snip at £15,000.

Astoundingly, the luvvies at Transported are stumping up the lion’s share, leaving B-Tacky to
make up any shortfall.

The seeds were also sown for B-Tacky to think about how it
might pay up in future years as well – as the current Christmas lighting
contract expires this year and the council doesn’t have the money to pay for it
any more.

As expected, the committee bent the knee, and agreed to pay
up £2,500 – the thin end of what may prove to be a very expensive wedge.

Yet for the Munchkins at Worst Street this is just another exercise
in financial cannibalism.

Only a couple of issues ago we reported on the – otherwise
unreported – syphoning of more than
£300,000 from the reserves to the PRSA – which this week has allegedly been “saved” yet again by another so-called
“partnership” deal which sees a private company take control, but Worst Street
continuing to foot the repair bills.

***

Why are we so exercised about the looting of B-Tacky, we
hear you cry?

Because – put simply – paying for the borough's Christmas
lighting is not on the committee’s to-do list.

Read this if you don’t believe us.

Or this ...

B-Tacky claws in more than £100,000 a year from the nine town
centre wards that it purportedly represents.

The 18 parishes outside the central areas make charges of
around £200,000 to cover spending in their respective patches.

B-Tacky is expected to have a £60,000 surplus at the end of
March next year, largely because it rarely spends any money on the wards within
its care.

And that is why the cabinet thinks that the committee's
funds are fair game and is prepared to ignore its own rules and regulations and
nick the money for a borough-wide project that will also draw in visitors from
outside the area.

***

The two chief beggars to B-Tacky were the portfolio holders
for the Town Centre and Leisure – Councillors Paul Skinner and Claire Rylott.

As they are new to the cabinet, their assault on another
committee’s funds might be due to naivety.

But another cabinet member – Councillor Michael Brookes – is
not a newcomer. He is in his second term as a cabinet member and is also the
council’s deputy leader.

Despite this, he has apparently set out to muddy the waters
to help his henchpeople get their paws on BTAC’s cash.

Last week’s edition of the council’s Goody Two Shoes News
(circulation 783 – see later in the blog) tells us: “Councillor Michael Brookes
said Kirton and Swineshead provided their own lights.

“Cabinet members agreed that as BTAC (Boston Town Area
Committee) mirrors the responsibilities of a parish or town council for Boston
it should be approached about helping fund future Christmas lights.”

The cabinet is being wilfully ignorant over this issue.

If lights are to be provided for the borough as a hole – and
also for the visitors that it is hoped to attract – then the cost must come
from central funds as the rules stand at present.

B-Tacky could have refused politely, with a motion to the
effect that the request from the cabinet was outside its remit, and politely
referring the appeal back to the beggars to place before the full council.

Now, we suspect that the B-Tacky budget will forever be
prey to demands for money to spend on non-central ward items for whatever wasteful
whim seizes the cabinet “minds.”

***

Several other interesting items emerged at this week’s
meeting. More on them in our next blog.

***

Earlier, we mentioned naivety in the same sentence as the
portfolio holder for the town centre, Councillor Paul Skinner – and he
certainly seems to be working hard to show it.

In a letter to the Boston
Sub-Standard, he takes the paper’s columnist Observer to task over the debate on the Market Place and the
replacement of planters with fake cast iron lookalike bollards.

He tells him “I will refresh his memory ...” and whilst accusing the writer of missing
key issues, in turn demonstrates not exactly the greatest knowledge on a
subject that is supposed to be his cabinet specialism.

Councillor Skinner also has the impudence to ask Observer “What are you doing to help promote the use of this community space?”

We have to assume that this means that Councillor Skinner is
after an idea or two to help him perform his duties – as any initiatives from
him thus far have been conspicuous by their absence.

Let us refresh your
memory, Mr Skinner.

Your council promised that once the Market Place work was completed
it would become home to regular events and attractions and a variety of
alternative markets.

Councillor Skinner cites the only new market to have emerged
since then – the craft market.

Two weeks ago this comprised just three stalls, and we would
be surprised if the stallholders consider it worth their while attending for
much longer.

Does the council promote it?

No it doesn’t – so no one knows it's there, so no-one
bothers to visit it.

You say that the Market Place is not needed as a “massive”
car park, as there are almost 3,000 parking spaces in the town centre.

Perhaps a sign or two indicating where they might be found,
and how far away they are would assist people to park elsewhere – but no such
signs are in evidence.

What does worry us is his statement that: “I don't think
enough has yet been done on consultation
to produce the best solution on parking and loading" – which has the awful sound
of yet another Task and Finish Group about it.

***

Talking of which...

A regular reader and occasional contributor who is In the
Know asks: “Could I put my 'pennyworth' in on the Task and Finish issues

“1: Various issues regarding communication with its members
formed the main T and F findings on Boston Business Improvement District.

“Although the Cabinet and officers were aware that there was
no sign of improvement in such matters they – the administration – were apparently quite happy with this state
of affairs, as evidenced by the 17 Boston Borough Council referendum votes being cast in favour of the
continuation of BID in spite of its faults.

“2: At the end of the presentation of the Social Change Task
and Finish report to the Scrutiny Committee, a final recommendation was added; that
enough funding should be put in the council's relevant budget heading to
implement such recommendations as were the council’s responsibility.

“This was, as I recollect, agreed by the Scrutiny Committee
but did not appear in the final report agreed by the Cabinet for some reason.

“Isn't Cabinet government wonderful!?

“3: Since you started
listing the readership of GTSN at 784 I have cancelled my subscription. Please
adjust your figure accordingly.”

***

Looking back, there were no prizes for guessing why the
council threw its votes in favour of Boston BID continuing.

BID imposed a levy on its involuntary members – backed up by
legal action from the council if they did not pay – which raised £100,000 a
year.

Despite the fact that the BID rules barred it from carrying
out jobs that were the responsibility of the local council, Worst Street was
soon mining this rich vein of income as a supplement to their own coffers.

Sounds familiar?

See above.

***

Still with Tasking and Finishing ... another reader wrote to
say: “I get the impression that yet more money is to be spent on 'reports' etc.,
filling non-jobs at very high cost and having yet another massive talk-in which
produces nothing!

“Seeing as all the services are being cut – the PRSA
excepted of course – is the council actually spending anything on services ...
apart from the fortnightly bin collections?

“If all these cuts continue we'll soon be paying only for
salaries etc.

“I always thought if we 'cut' something we didn't spend
money – so shouldn't we really be paying less in council tax.

“Or doesn't it work like that?”

The answer is a) this is Boston Borough Council so b) it
doesn’t work.

***

A bleat after last week's blog from the company which owns the
Assembly Rooms nightclub after our report which quoted Worst Street as saying
that it provided Christmas lights on the building.

“Disappointed in criticism again regarding one of our
venues,” it twittered." Never asked for Xmas lighting. Pay for the electric for
the entire street’s Xmas lights. No praise for £2k of hanging baskets and similar cost
to upkeep …"

As we noted in our reply, we made no criticism – we merely
quoted a council report which claimed that it
provided the lights, and remarked that we felt that the owners should take
responsibility.

As far as the hanging baskets are concerned, they are an
attraction that benefits the Assembly Rooms as much as anyone else, and a
number of other premises use such items to enhance the look of their premises.

What the Activ tweet did do was to remind us that when the
Assembly Rooms deal was still being discussed, a report to the council said;
“The applicant considers that the for the majority of the time, the building
will continue to be used for a wide variety of private and public social
functions including community based activities such as clubs and meetings,
blood donor sessions, coffee mornings and Weight Watchers.”

Has any of that happened? We don’t think so.

***

We mentioned Boston Business “Improvement” District last
week and the not-so-small matter of the £6,600 that was paid over by Boston
Borough Council to the Lincolnshire Chamber of Commerce acting on behalf of the
new Boston Town Team, on 2nd March this year.

This is, of course, the same town team that claims not to have
any direct funding.

Most probably, it doesn’t need any, as it appears to have
done nothing much since its first meeting in January when it declared that its
“vision” was “to make Boston a better place to work, live and play; increase
footfall along with tourist numbers and reduce the number of empty units in the
town centre, enhancing the vitality and viability of the town.”

It identified as its three key objectives to increase
footfall by 10%, reduce empty shops by 20% and create an annual increase in the
number of tourists visiting the town centre.

We have lost count of the number of times aims such as these
have been written down – and never come to anything.

But what has this to do with Boston BID – which everyone
thought was voted out of existence in October 2013 and ceased operations at the
end of that year?

Well, depending on your viewpoint, the good – or bad – news
is that Boston BID appears to be alive and well.

According to companies house, Boston BID’s last annual
accounts were made up to March 31st last year, and the last annual return was
made up to February this year.

This return lists the 447 “shareholders” and nine company
directors – including the names of two former councillors.

According to these accounts, the BID was owed more than
£11,000 and has more than £4,000 cash in hand – giving it total assets of more
than £15,000.

But within a year of those accounts more than £14,000 falls
due to creditors which will leave a balance of slightly more than £800.

Boston BID’s next annual return is expected at Companies
House by 19th March next year.

Between now and then, perhaps someone would like to tell us
what is going on.

***

Earlier we commented how – whilst many of our fellow
district councils are in good heart, and being positive – our own so-called leaders
bury their heads in the sand and whine on endlessly about how hard up they are
and how nothing can be done any more.

Tell that to South Kesteven District Council – which this
week saw work begin on the £3.6 million first section of the Grantham Southern
Relief Road.

After completion of phase one, a further two phases of the
relief road will follow, with the entire road expected to be operational by
2019.

Local County Councillor Richard (Bob the Builder) Davies who
is also Lincolnshire’s portfolio holder for transport, says that the southern
relief road project will not only improve Grantham’s infrastructure, it will also
provide an opportunity to aid the economic growth of the area and provide
access to a proposed housing development and commercial development land
nearby.

The project is being led by Lincolnshire County Council
supported by South Kesteven District Council, the Greater Lincolnshire LEP, the
Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) and local businesses.

Now that is what we call a partnership – unlike the shonky
deals that Worst Street cobbles together under the same name ... mostly with Transported for a load of unwanted and
necessary artwork.

But of course, it’s free – which is why Worst Street always
orders a double helping.

***

So they’re happy bunnies in Grantham – and things are going
well in South Holland as well.

Earlier this year, work began on a 51-acre business park off
the A16 in Spalding known as the Lincolnshire Gateway project.

It’s due to be completed by the end of the year and will
include a 52-bedroom Premier Inn hotel, a Brewers Fayre pub/restaurant, petrol
filling station, shops and a conference centre.

It’s believed that up to 1,000 new jobs could be created
over the next ten years.

Spalding already boasts a Travelodge Hotel at the
Springfields shopping outlet, which is home to more than 50 big name stores.

And if that’s not enough, plans for improving transport
connections to Spalding will be discussed at the first Lincolnshire Transport
Conference to be staged next month at
Springfields Event Centre.

The conference will be about “Connecting South Lincolnshire”
with guest speakers from Virgin Trains, East Midlands Trains, Brylaine and
Freshlinc.

Government representatives will also talk about the
challenges facing Spalding’s infrastructure and their plans to better connect
the area.

The event is organised by the Spalding and Peterborough
Transport Forum and the Spalding and District Chamber of Commerce.

But don't forget .,. Boston’s got a Town Team, and a Task
and Finish group will be spending months debating what needs to be done for the
borough.

When the poet John Milton wrote “They also serve who only
stand and wait” he might have had Boston Borough Council in mind – apart from
the “serve” bit, that is.

Instead of anything approaching action Worst Street has
followed the lead set by David Cameron in the war on terror – by employing
drone warfare.

How so?

It drones on and on and on about how hard up and powerless
it is until we taxpayers surrender or drop dead from boredom!

***

A couple of weeks ago we mentioned the successful calendar
produced for the first time by Boston Borough Council, and lamented the fact
that no one appeared to have deemed the idea worth doing again.

It must have sounded a wake-up call in someone’s mind at
Worst Street as – lo and behold – letters went out dated 7th September to last year’s sponsors asking them
if they wanted to help again, by funding a page at a cost of £138.

Apparently the calendar will feature “Boston through the
seasons” and given the lateness of the decision to produce it, must be relying
on old, stock photos – rather than specially commissioned ones.

Apparently, Worst Street is not asking for cash down – on
the grounds that “we might not get enough sponsors in time” ... which scarcely
seems surprising at this stage.

About this time last year, it had been printed.

Oh, did we say that last year's sponsors were being invited
to take a page again this year?

Well, not quite all of them.

Last year, Boston Eye
was pleased to take a page after a last minute appeal went out for help, and Boston
Borough Council was happy to take our money.

This year, however, no letter has been received at Number 1
Eye Street.

We must remember to send a bowl of sour grapes to the
“communications” department!

***

Of course, a similar example of bad timing has occurred with
the Christmas lights/Christmas market debacle – with the cabinet beggars
telling B-Tacky that if it slips them some money it can nominate a committee
member to attend and contribute to the event planning meetings leading up to
the 26th November.

Given that last year’s council committee on Christmas began
meeting around Easter, we don't hold out much hope for whatever might emerge
this late in the day with a window of just two months.

Mind you, everything is done as quickly as possible in Worst
Street these days.

We’re told that the last cabinet meeting, whose agenda
included the quarterly performance, finance and risk figures, policy for
keeping people safe and the future of Christmas in Boston was done and dusted
in slightly more than half an hour.

Clearly a group that takes things seriously ... and doesn’t
just rubber stamp reports.

And how about this final example?

The Vintage A Fayre,
which is “organised” by Boston Borough Council, but scarcely ever publicised is
the subject of the Tweet on the left ...

Just twelve days before the event, Worst Street makes a
“last call” for applicants for the last few stalls available.

Twelve days!

Despite the lack of pre-publicity, we stumbled across the
most recent of these “fayres” which mostly sells old clothes, and all but
constituted the “crowds.”

Forgive the photographer’s shadow – but you need the sun at
your back for this particular snap.

As we strolled through town the other day we noticed this
trail of oil droplets, running the length of Strait Bargate and clearly pointing
to Brylaine Buses as the culprit.

Knowing the Worst Street fondness for gadgetry, how about
buying another cleaning machine to join the fag vac and gum remover to wash
away this new piece of unsightliness.

And perhaps have a word with Mr Brylaine as well –
suggesting that they check their sump nuts for tightness.

***

In common with just about everyone with a nominal title,
Boston’s Mayor, Councillor Richard Austin, sent a letter of congratulation to
the Queen as she became Britain’s longest-reigning monarch.

He began well enough – writing “On behalf of the people of
the Borough of Boston ... “but soon after developed a spot of I-trouble, lapsing from the collective
to the personal.

“I could not allow
the moment to pass without recognising your great contribution to this country
and the Commonwealth. It is a magnificent milestone in British history.

“I would like to
express my very best wishes to you,
Your Majesty, and the Royal Family.”

We’re sure that there wasn’t a dry I in Buck House when the letter arrived – hopefully by second class
post, given the state of the borough's finances.

It struck us as notably patronising, which was really
surprising, considering who the author was.

Doubtless the GTSN will soon be splashing the headlines when
a royal flunky responds with a stock reply that will be sent to everyone who
has sent the Queen a goodwill message.

***

And talking of the GTSN, we reported last week on its claim
in a £300 newspaper advert begging for readers,
to be a “warts and all publication” – an expression apparently liked so
much that it was used more than once, and which we took to mean that it
reported the rough with the smooth.

Tuesday’s edition of GTSN reported the findings of the
annual “Customer Survey.”

GTSN crooned: “The annual customer survey revealed that 69%
of respondents were happy with where they live, 46% were satisfied with how the
council runs things with 30% dissatisfied. Highest levels of satisfaction were
for garden waste collections (82%), refuse and recycling (80%), Boston Market
65%) and Boston in Bloom (64 %.)

Missing from the story was the part of the report which
said: “The highest levels of dissatisfaction were for Public Toilets (76%), Car
Parking (57%) and the Town Centre (41%.)

A wart or two appears to be missing, wethinks – which says
far more than we ever could about the claim to report the bad as well as the
good.

If nothing else, someone ought to tell the portfolio holder
for the Town Centre about all the disappointment he presides over so he can
find someone to appeal to for advice!

***

Finally, we can feel the gleeful hysteria building after the
news that Boston in Bloom has won a
gold award in the East Midlands in Bloom competition.

Given that the cost of staging this dog hanging is put at
£19,000, we just hope that the medal is made of the real stuff.

Then we could flog it and do something for Boston for
Christmas.

***

Boston Eye is taking next week off. Join us again on Friday
2nd October

You can write to us at boston.eye@googlemail.com Your e-mails will be treated in confidence
and published anonymously if requested.

3 comments:

with reference to the Christmas festivities last year, I asked for councillor volunteers in November of 2013 for the following year's event. The first meeting was at the beginning of February and initially there were several councillors but only Cllr Paul Gleeson and myself were able to continue and continue we did with the help of council officers, as we couldn't have done it without them.

With reference to the Calendar. 2015 calendar was already printed this time last year. If you look at last years calendar, it already represents the season! xmas lights at xmas for church street, snow on the ground in central park in winter and autumn leaves falling in Witham park in..yes Autumn. The 2016 calendar was to be about Boston people entitled "Boston at work". This idea came from a calendar from New York USA but theirs was entitled "We are New York" and did not feature any buildings or monuments! Last years calendar was a great success, let us hope that this one can be as well.

Sorry I forgot to add that there was little interest from Councillors to assist with the xmas event last year. There was little interest at BTAC meeting except from just two people, That's how much our current councillors care about Christmas in this Town!

About the author

is written and edited by retired Lincolnshire born writer and broadcaster Malcolm Swire, who was brought up in London, where he began his career in journalism.
In the 1960s he joined the Boston Standard before returning to London to write for the UK’s national news agency, the Press Association – then based in Fleet Street.
He returned to Lincolnshire –where his family history goes back more than a century – in various public relations roles, before becoming a founder member of BBC Radio Lincolnshire,where he created the station's Go for Gold appeal,which raised hundreds of thousands of pounds for local charities.
Over the years, he read the news, presented programmes and retired from the BBC as the station's Programme Organiser and Deputy Managing Editor.
He started the Boston Eye blog in February 2007 and has vowed to continue until Boston Borough Council's leadership is all that it should be!
He has dug in for a long wait!